moving not treading

regarding yesterday's bunch of signings: i like them. they are all good money deals for the redbirds. true, adam kennedy is signed for more than last year's 2nd base spending limit which cost us grudzielanek (god knows i've misspelled that), but in the end, we'll have spent less this coming year than in 2006 on 2nd base due to the junior spivey-as-million-dollar-minor-leaguer added to luna (at minimum), gollum (at slightly over minimum), and jabba the second baseman (pro-rated, but 1mm+).

kip wells for 4mm a year is fine with me. he projects to be a good duncan fixer-upper, with a new coat of paint and maybe new curtains. most groundball specialists can succeed as #5 guys with the cards, thanks to the emphasis on infield defense (and the dumb luck of the best hitter in the game, possibly of all time, also being one of the best first basemen in the bigs today).

1 more year, 162 more chances to utter the phrase "gary freakin' bennett?!?"

eli marerro is a fan favorite, and as far as i'm concerned, we can sign virtually any old body to a minor league contract. let him compete for a spot. it worked for the imperial spiez, did it not?

start out on the (relatively) cheap, build from there. i like it, walt.

gary bennett sweeps

and not as a janitor, as previous entries might imply.

gary "freakin'" bennett? are we talking about the same gary "freakin'" bennett that hit his first cardinal homer against the cubs like last week? the guy who has been dancing around yadi's batting average, but without the power?

the same, yes.

gary bennett is officially off the rabid redbird hook, at least until he has a homerless game. ok, i'll even extend that to say if he doesn't homer, but does hit the game winning rbi, he can remain in my good graces.

note to readers: the nickname "freakin'" will be applied to a different cardinal every year. sometimes, there will even be multiple "freakin'"'s in a year. for example, were he not already "gollum," our backup middle infielder would be aaron "freakin'" miles. it is primarily meant to indicate the player least likely to succeed and/or the player in the rabid redbird doghouse du jour. that is all.

i actually got to go to the game saturday, which was fun (my first time seeing carp pitch live), but i feel really bad for my wife, who was at a funeral, thus missing the third of the four-pack of tickets that was her christmas present. oh well, we've got one more game we might be able to go to, but i doubt we'll have seats that i'll like better than the four pack were.

such is life, i suppose.